Do you get away?

This weekend we went out to the ranch to spend some time with family and to just “get away”… something that’s become increasingly important to Matthew since he started law school.  We had a nice time, and I’ve been feeling lucky that we have a place like that to go to, even though it’s not particularly fancy or luxurious.  Fancy or not, it’s a place to go to see things and do things that break up some up that monotony of every day life, and to make you feel a little less like you’re sinking in the sludge. Cause we all have sludge, you know.  Such is life.

I don’t know about you, but personally I’m a bit (ok A LOT) of a homebody and sometimes it doesn’t feel like my natural tendency to get out and DO things and be around people.  Sometimes that’s something I have to force myself to do because I know that once I get there I’ll enjoy it and it’ll be good for me. 

But lately I’ve been realizing how incredibly important it is for an artist of any kind to simply get out or get away.  Whether that means visiting a different country or a different town or just making time to meet new people or go new places in your own city.  Our minds are funny things, and they’re most stimulated by new sights and sounds and smells and experiences.  Of course that’s not really rocket science, and yet so many of us resist change and getting out of our comfort zone.  Or in my case, my comfort RUT. And then we wonder why our art suffers.

I guess the main thing I wanted to say was that if you’re feeling uninspired, try going somewhere you never (or rarely) go or doing something you never do. Lately I’ve been having the strongest urges to do just that—even if it only means turning down a street I’ve never turned or going into a store I’ve never shopped in. I really find that it seems to jumpstart my creativity every time, and it also helps me to appreciate what I have more.  Sometimes it even makes me happy to get back to the sludge.  Imagine that.

Happy Monday!

sunset at the ranch

attire

an “Elk shed.” somewhere there’s a really lopsided Elk!

exploring

by the fire

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  Howard Thurman